The teacher strike is on the same day as DS's transistion day to year 7

[cottonwoolbrain]

He's already unhappy about the school he's been allocated but we've been selling it to him that he'll be much happier and everything will feel more real once he's been and spent the day there... he's the only one from his primary going so it was so it is more important to him than some others.

We've just about got him looking forward to it.. and now this. Wondering if there will be a transition day at all now.. I'm hoping it will be moved rather than cancelled. He's not even been inside the school only ever seen it from outside. He does not know a single person there.

We will wait to see what the school say before I tell him anything. Apparantly that week is transition day for loads of schools across the country... I'd like to think there was nothing deliberate about upsetting so many year 6s... but I feel as if there may be

I would argue that this is not "extra work" transition days happen every year so therefore are part of the cycle of a teachers year and I would imagine most schools would be able to reuse the same lesson plans year after year for this. Yes there are logistical issues but with no year 11s in school these can be managed.

I have fully supported the strikes but this feels like it is penalising children which is not fair. My eldest did not get any transition in 2020 and it was a really hard time, but everyone was in the same situation so understandable. These will have to be rearranged I would think.

2 strike days have been announced. 5th and 7th July

5th is transition day for every school in our borough and the neighbouring borough. I knows it’s not National, but it’s widespread enough that the unions will be completely aware which day they are choosing.

I don’t mind striking. I support their right to strike, but this feels spiteful.

So if your planned surgery fell on a day during the junior doctors strike and got cancelled, you would then just expect not to have the surgery at all?

I'm genuinely trying to understand your point.

Their choice. I'm not saying their priorities are wrong.

They could always sit this one out and join the next one. This is going to be a long time thing.

Did the members choose these dates? Agree to them?

A lot of parents will take their DC out of school on the Thursday and have a nice long weekend

Don't know how it works now but it used to be you vote to strike and the union decides the dates. May be different now. This particular union seems to strike the most, especially in comparison to the other education unions, I wonder if there's a reason.

The reason is that the other union didn't get a strike mandate. However, there's a reballot happening now for the Autumn term, which includes all of the teachers' unions.

The issue is here is that schools have done and signed off their budgets. However the big unknown is that no one knows what the teachers pay increase will be and if it will be funded. This information used to come out around March time and is steadily getting later and later and is now coming into the summer holidays. As governors we’ve signed off a budget with a figure for pay increases required by the LEA. The budget is finely balanced, if it’s more than we’ve budgeted for and unfunded then the budget is going to need to be redone. This would impact plans for September, will cause the head and governors huge stress and very difficult decisions and over the summer when the head should be having some downtime and people are away. There’s nothing else to cut in our budget apart from staffing. In what business do you set a budget and then have to work out a pay deal for staff who form most of your budget?

This is going to have a much bigger impact on your DC than missing a transition day. I believe the NEU would consider calling off the strike if the information is released, so send your MP an email and ask them to contact Gillian Keegan and get this information released so that heads and governors have a window to actually plan. (Still too late but better than the alternative.)

@Foxesandsquirrels I have been perfectly clear and I quoted what someone else said up the thread.

But I will say it again for you; I don’t think many parents will pressurise their MPs as a result of the strikes because they’re preoccupied with feeding and housing their kids. This means that education is not their top priority right now.

If that is case it is unfair on the members. It puts them in a tricky position. I understand its meant to be disruptive but strike action is stressful enough without feeling like you're disappointing children more than is necessary

Of course they will re arrange it. Plus not everyone strikes. Dd year 6 teachers were on strike every time apart from 2 right before Sats. Dd year 8 was off every time. She also missed out due to lockdown.

I'm confused about your point because I'm literally saying the same thing as you.

Also didn't they announce this yesterday? Give them a chance to get back into school to write out to you.

Just looked at the calendar dd11 transition day is also in the 5th.

Like I say, I absolutely support the strikes in general.

But 'the government are doing shitty things so that makes it ok' is a pretty weak argument.

I didn't say that I had a problem with it, as for it being "difficult" that would depend on how good the management/team supplying the information is.

Give them a chance! It may well be that the head chooses to prioritise induction day students now that y11 have (almost) finished their exams. Our secondary school only had y8 off for one in May & y7 off for the other. The strikes previous to that it was either y7&9 out or y8&10.

The primary school my dc attend only had reduced pupils for the very first strike day back in February (they managed to fudge the other days by getting sports coaches in & making them 'active days', which I don't agree with but there we go).

If he doesn't get his induction day it won't be the end of the world. My current y8 didn't have one due to covid neither did the current y9's.

But these things are, at most, regional days within an LEA and often school specific dates.
So any date in July is likely to be an issue for events.

We don't have a specific Lea wide transition day at my school. It's all worked around the schools timetable and that if the school most of our children go to.
We have various summer and end of year events happening every single week from now until the end of term. It would be impossible for a national strike to avoid everyone of them.

There’s a lot of things that didn’t happen due to covid that I don’t think were hugely positive, to be honest. As with most things, the ones who need it the most are the ones most at a disadvantage when it doesn’t happen. Obviously sometimes life happens but I don’t think that in itself is powerful as an argument.

Totally agree. Let's see if the government care enough about the disruption to agree to actually negotiate a settlement. Parents should be demanding their MPs back funding education properly. There was a thread on MN this week where people were horrified that unqualified teachers and TAs are taking classes. This is part of the demands of the unions, it's not just about pay for teachers.

So you think education is perfectly fine as it is - with it being totally underfunded, budgets overloaded, resources waving, any proposed pay rises not funded by the government and coming out of existing budgets, etc? And that's having no impact on schools and education already?

Maybe the teachers are striking as they are prioritising education as a whole and want better for everyone's children beyond July!

No I didn't realise the members didn't choose the date so I retract that and now think the union are being deeply unfair to their members putting them in a tricky potion like that. I had assumed the members had chosen the strike date but I was wrong.

And no I think the state of education is shit. I think the government dgaf and the only thing that will make them care is when all the teachers have quit.